A power outage Wednesday morning impacted more than 38,000 homes and businesses in the Toledo area and forced Lucas County 911 to switch over to emergency power, officials said.
The outage was caused when a transmission line came down and affected several substations, Hannah Catlett, a spokesman for Toledo Edison said.
The 911 center at 2144 Monroe St. lost power around 11:10 a.m.
Ralph Shearn, fire communications manager at Lucas County 911 said the agency was initially unaware of the cause but knew the outage was widespread based on the sudden surge of calls to 911.
“Our phones lit up right away,” he said. “We got very busy very quickly.”
In addition to the 911 center, multiple fire stations were also forced to switch to backup power systems. Station 5 at 1 N. Ontario St., Station 9 at 900 South Ave., and Station 16 at 1301 Dorr St. were all impacted.
The outage lasted about 30 minutes, as crews were able to quickly isolate the problem and take steps to restore service. Repair work was continuing Wednesday afternoon.